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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23288734">in which darcy lewis is emotionally competent</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryPSue/pseuds/MaryPSue'>MaryPSue</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Darcy Lewis Is a Good Bro, Gen, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:54:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,056</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23288734</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryPSue/pseuds/MaryPSue</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Thor shakes his head. The words are out before he can stop them. “I am not worthy of the ones I love.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Where’d you get that idea, slugger?” Darcy asks, in a deceptively bright voice.</i>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Darcy Lewis &amp; Thor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>106</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>in which darcy lewis is emotionally competent</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Could not stop thinking about one significant line from Thor the First + <a href="https://marypsue.tumblr.com/post/190967777002/hiddleloki-thor-ragnarok-deleted-scene">that one cut scene from Ragnarok</a>, and out spilled this scene. I’d say it fits (sort of, in a softer, kinder timeline) somewhere between Avengers and TDW.</p><p>Darcy possesses the Power of Mabel and you will not convince me otherwise.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Thor turns the coffee mug over and over in his hands.</p><p>“I fear,” he says, his voice low, “that my brother may truly be lost to me. I had hoped – but his madness, his bitterness, his rage, have proven more important to him than any bond we may have had. If he has no wish to be my brother – if he would harm my friends, my chosen world - if he has forgotten or does not care that I tried to save him -”</p><p>The coffee mug shatters in his grip. Darcy’s on her feet grabbing paper towels and a dustpan almost before the last few shards fall.</p><p>“You are really pissed at him, huh,” she observes, as she mops up the broken glass.</p><p>Thor shrugs, feeling – he’s not certain how he feels, only that he mislikes it. “I have done all that I can think of to do for him. It lies in his hands now whether he chooses to come back to me. I cannot -” He clenches his hand into a fist, then lets it fall open again. “I cannot make this decision for him. I cannot make him wish to be again the brother I knew.”</p><p>Darcy doesn’t speak, for a long moment.</p><p>“Nah,” she says, finally, almost dismissively. “Nobody can.” Her look, though shrewd, is ruined somewhat when she pushes her glasses up her nose. “But I bet you wish you could.”</p><p>Thor has nothing to add to her words. He studies his hands, instead.</p><p>“Hey, for what it’s worth, I think you’re making the right call, taking a step back,” Darcy says. “You’re right, you can’t make Loki not want to be such a dillweed. But you <em>can</em> make sure he doesn’t suck you down with him.”</p><p>“That is not -” Thor starts to protest, and Darcy presses her lips together with a too-knowing look. “My brother would never -”</p><p>“Well, you know him better than I do. And, I mean, like they say, hurt people hurt people. <em>But</em>,” she says, wagging a finger in Thor’s face, interrupting the interruption he was about to make, “that doesn’t mean you gotta let ‘em hurt you so they feel better. You deserve to feel okay too, y’know.”</p><p>Thor shakes his head. The words are out before he can stop them. “I am not worthy of the ones I love.”</p><p>Darcy goes very quiet. It is a kind of silence Thor has heard from the Lady Sif, just after some fool has loudly questioned her prowess in battle. Just before she has roundly proven it, and the fool slunk away in defeat.</p><p>“Where’d you get that idea, slugger?” Darcy asks, at last, in a deceptively bright voice. Thor is not fooled.</p><p>“Such were my father’s words,” he says, wishing he had not destroyed the coffee mug so that he might have aught to do with his hands. “When he cast me out from Asgard. He was right. I acted with a boy’s recklessness, a boy’s temper, but my actions carried the weight of a man’s. I was selfish.”</p><p>“It’s not selfish to not want to keep crawling back to somebody just to get kicked in the teeth over and over,” Darcy says, hotly.</p><p>“Is it not?” Thor asks her, meeting her eye.</p><p>“No!”</p><p>“But if I truly acted without selfishness -” Thor glances back towards the door, towards the row of hooks where he had hung his hammer when he entered. “It was only through sacrifice that I proved myself worthy to wield Mjölnir. If no sacrifice has yet been enough to win back Loki’s love, his trust, then -”</p><p>“Thor,” Darcy says, her voice low and urgent. She leans across the table, taking both his hands in hers even as she locks eyes with him. “Serious question, and I want a serious answer.”</p><p>“I will answer as best I can,” Thor swears.</p><p>“Has Jane ever asked you to prove you love her? That you’re ‘worthy’ of being loved by her?”</p><p>“Jane? Never.” He cannot, Thor finds, even imagine her asking such a thing.</p><p>“But she loves you, right?”</p><p>“I believe so.”</p><p>Darcy gives Thor’s hands a little pat, then releases him, sitting back in her chair with her arms folded over her chest and a look of triumph on her face. “So, why would you think anybody else has <em>any</em> right to say you’re not ‘worthy’ of her? That you guys shouldn’t be together? Because I think if Jane heard about that, she would beat them up. With science.”</p><p>Thor shakes his head at that. Darcy’s logic is confusing, makes no sense. He mislikes what sense it <em>does</em> make. “But – Loki -”</p><p>“Has his own issues? Relationships aren’t, like, quests. And people aren’t prizes. You can’t win them. Maybe your brother will grow up and realise he’s being a dickweasel. Maybe he won’t. All you can do is put the offer on the table – or take it back off, if he keeps biting your hand.” Darcy kicks her chair back to balance on its hind two legs. “Man, am I great at metaphors or am I great at metaphors?”</p><p>“I shall sing your praises, Darcy metaphor-maker,” Thor says, which earns him a smile. He tries to smile back, but finds he cannot sustain it for long. “I see your point, and you are kind to try to make it. But – my father -”</p><p>“Probably didn’t mean it quite the way it came out,” Darcy says. “Or, <em>did</em> mean it exactly the way it came out, in which case I think I see where Loki gets his unforgiving dickweasel qualities from.”</p><p>Thor shakes his head. “My father is renowned throughout the Nine for his wisdom.”</p><p>Darcy bites down on her lower lip, nodding thoughtfully as she pushes her glasses back up her nose. “Okay, well, that doesn’t mean he can’t <em>also</em> be a gigantic assface.” She looks up to meet Thor’s eyes once more. “But – okay. Let’s say he’s right. Let’s say people can be worthy or unworthy of other people’s love.”</p><p>Her voice is the most serious Thor has heard it, all trace of lightness or sarcasm gone, when she says, “While you’re killing yourself trying to be worthy of theirs, what are they doing to be worthy of yours?”</p><p>It is for the best that the door swings wide to admit Jane, then, because Thor finds he has no answer.</p>
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